Ferm 6.0 motor question

Skools Out · #1 01-23-2012, 01:16 AM

Hey Ferm, What do you know about the 2005 GM 6.0 motors? I have one that has the Aluminum heads and cast block, it has oil pressure at idle till it gets warm then no oil pressure at idle but it has good oil pressure driving. any ideas? I've got it on a crate so not a prob to open it up. I'm planning to use it in my 54 Chevy Truck Street Rod. I have a 1999 GM L80E for it too. going to a ford 9". the motor has original 69K miles and come from a Vette. was replaced under warranty. i have the complete motor all but the computer.

THEFERMANATOR · #2 01-23-2012, 01:41 AM

There pretty solid engines, but the oil pumps in them are known to fail at normally 250K miles. You don't often see a low milage one lose oil pressure. I would have suspected a bad guage cluster or sending unit for that low milage engine to have oil pressure issues. I know the possibilities for them are pretty high if your willing to do some work on it. The late 90's CAMARO and FIREBIRD guys are buying them up left and right. Swap over the car intake and some better heads with a cam swap and 500+HP is pretty easy to get out of em. You normally don't hear of internal parts failures in them until you start going over 600HP with about 8+ pounds of boost. Are you sure it came from a Vette though? All of the car engines are supposed to be aluminum blocks and heads and the cast iron blocks were for the trucks.

Skools Out · #3 01-23-2012, 02:03 AM

that's what the tag says and what i was told not 100% sure no. the dealership put a new oil pump in it and replaced the cooling lines even the drysump was replaced. nothing fixed it. the dealership said it needed new main bearings and that would fix it.

spareparts · #4 01-23-2012, 07:27 AM

I agree with Ferm, that should have been out of a 2500 series truck. Search thru Hot Rod magazine on line, they did a build up with a 6.0L a while back, it made stupid HP on pump gas. Considering what the dealer said, with what your finding, I'd go ahead and double check it with a mechanical gauge, if you still don't have and oil pressure, pull the pan and have a look.

RidgeRunner · #5 01-23-2012, 07:51 AM

My old red truck (6.0) was lathargic until I switched the cam. (and put on the blower) I had to pull the oil pump for the cam change. I did not pull the pan to remove the pick-up tube bolts, I chose to fight it for over an hour putting it back together. When I was finished I had good oil pressure at idle, and plenty of pressure while driving, but would fall off to nothing after it warmed up at idle. Finally, pulled the pan and replaced the o-ring on the pick-up tube to cure the issue. I know it is a longshot, but still.. The oil pans and covers have the reuseable gaskets, I wasted too much time being hard-headed about pulling the pan. It was my first look at the new design.
There is a guy in Orlando, FL. that has a good bit of experience hot rodding the new generation of small blocks. If you are used to the camshaft specs on a old-school SBC, the numbers on the Gen III roller motors are be-dazzling, he is a good source for what works as he has tried them all.

THEFERMANATOR · #6 01-23-2012, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skools Out

that's what the tag says and what i was told not 100% sure no. the dealership put a new oil pump in it and replaced the cooling lines even the drysump was replaced. nothing fixed it. the dealership said it needed new main bearings and that would fix it.

There is no 6.0L dry sump engine that I'm aware of either, only the 7.0L LS engine was a dry sump engine. Pull the pan and take a look see at it. Also put up a picture of it as it sounds like you have a truck engine. Not a real big deal as the truck engine can make some real serious HP with the right mods. The only real drawback is the truck engine's iron blocks are HEAVY! I believe they say the iron block weighs about 140-170 pounds more than the aluminum blocked car engines.

Skools Out · #7 01-23-2012, 11:38 AM

a friend of mine said to bore it to the 427 motor. he has a 427 out of a 2011 vette in his 57 chevy, but it has a ton of motor work in it too. his dynoed at 863 hp at the rear tires. it's a strong car. it has the 6 speed auto though.

THEFERMANATOR · #8 01-23-2012, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skools Out

a friend of mine said to bore it to the 427 motor. he has a 427 out of a 2011 vette in his 57 chevy, but it has a ton of motor work in it too. his dynoed at 863 hp at the rear tires. it's a strong car. it has the 6 speed auto though.

Not sure howe far you can bore the iron blocks, but 125 thousands oversized bore probably isn't going to happen. Also keep in mind the 7.0L LS7 is a completely differrent animal all together from teh iron block 6.0L. You need to figure out what you have first as the iron block screams truck engine as only trucks were supposed to ever get iron blocks.

Heres a WIKI link I found that seems to have some good info and mostly correct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_LS_engine

RidgeRunner · #9 01-23-2012, 04:20 PM

Dry sump?? If it is on a crate it should be easy to recognize the dry-sump. Are all of the accessories still on the motor? Including the external pump? Otherwise, I'm thinking truck engine too but who knows. Diamond in the rough?

Skools Out · #10 01-24-2012, 08:42 AM

ok found out by running the vin tag on the side of the block. it came out of a 2005 Box truck 4500 series, the miles are right though has 69k. it had ext oil cooler and extra oil cap reservoir with an ext oil pump. it has the reg oil pump internal too odd motor huh. it says the motor rating is 365 Hp and 435 ft tq. guess i have a good base to build a monster.